About this objectFolding fan advertising Carlton Hotel & Restaurant, London.
Monture: Wood, stamped with gilt designs.
Mount: Single paper leaf.
Obverse: Art Nouveau chromolithograph signed E GENDROT. In the centre of the leaf, a medallion bordered with gold contains a female head shown in profile; stylized white lilies in the reserves.
Reverse: handwritten autographs running vertically along each pleat line; also dated (by hand) June 25th 1900. All but two of the autographs have been identified, including those of husband and wife stars of the Edwardian stage, Sir Edward Seymour Hicks and Ellaline Terris. The latter signs her name with the prefix ‘Bluebell’ which could be a reference to the 1901 staging of the musical Bluebells in Fairyland in which the couple took leads; the autograph of an associate cast member, Margaret Fraser, adds weight to this assumption. The fan is inscribed 1900, perhaps the cast had already begun rehearsals? The actors were dining with auspicious company on this occasion as other autographs can be attributed to Viscountess Esher, her two sons and possibly the 2nd Viscount Esher himself (signed simply as ‘Esher’.) See below for a list of identified autographs.